Peoples Bancorp Inc. (NASDAQ:PEBO) Sees Large Drop in Short Interest

Peoples Bancorp Inc. (NASDAQ:PEBO) was the recipient of a large drop in short interest in August. As of August 15th, there was short interest totalling 461,400 shares, a drop of 17.6% from the July 31st total of 559,700 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 136,700 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.4 days.

Peoples Bancorp Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:PEBO opened at $32.00 on Friday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $30.97 and a 200-day simple moving average of $29.53. Peoples Bancorp has a 52 week low of $24.84 and a 52 week high of $34.85. The company has a market cap of $1.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.58 and a beta of 0.76. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22.

Peoples Bancorp (NASDAQ:PEBO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The bank reported $0.84 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.85 by ($0.01). Peoples Bancorp had a net margin of 20.58% and a return on equity of 12.76%. The company had revenue of $154.47 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $111.30 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.83 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Peoples Bancorp will post 3.28 EPS for the current year.

Peoples Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 19th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 5th were paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.00%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 5th. Peoples Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 47.90%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director David F. Dierker sold 4,000 shares of Peoples Bancorp stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.07, for a total transaction of $128,280.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 13,330 shares in the company, valued at $427,493.10. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In the last quarter, insiders sold 4,617 shares of company stock worth $148,524. 3.46% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Peoples Bancorp

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. nVerses Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Peoples Bancorp in the 2nd quarter valued at about $27,000. AJOVista LLC acquired a new position in Peoples Bancorp during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Innealta Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Peoples Bancorp during the second quarter worth approximately $46,000. Quest Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Peoples Bancorp by 20,273.3% in the second quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 3,056 shares of the bank’s stock worth $92,000 after acquiring an additional 3,041 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Future Financial Wealth Managment LLC purchased a new position in shares of Peoples Bancorp in the 1st quarter valued at $118,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.68% of the company’s stock.

About Peoples Bancorp

Peoples Bancorp Inc operates as the holding company for Peoples Bank that provides commercial and consumer banking products and services. The company accepts various deposit products, including demand deposit accounts, savings accounts, money market accounts, certificates of deposit, and governmental deposits; and provides commercial and industrial, commercial real estate, construction, finance, residential real estate, and consumer indirect and direct loans, as well as home equity lines of credit and overdrafts.